AUTUMN has arrived, bringing chillier weather, falling leaves, and darker mornings for millions of commuters.
If you struggled to drag yourself out of bed this morning, you’re not alone.
With summer behind us, the UK is shedding around three to four minutes of daylight every day.
The seasonal shift often catches early risers off guard, but how long will you have to face heading out into the cold before first light today?
Here is everything you need to know about what time the sun rises across Britain, when the clocks turn back, and the full schedule of sunrise times for the rest of 2026.
What time is sunrise today?
Across the wider UK, dawn breaks at varying times depending on where you live.
Because the sun rises in the east, eastern coastal areas like Lowestoft in Suffolk catch the dawn earliest, while cities further west and north face longer periods in the dark.
For a rough starting point, we’ll use London as a middle ground to give you an idea of when to expect the light.
Today (Wednesday, October 14), the sun rises at 7.22am, and will set this evening at 6.09pm, giving the capital roughly 10 hours and 47 minutes of total daylight.
In Manchester, sunrise is at 7.34am; Cardiff also sees first light at 7.34am; Edinburgh wakes up at 7.41am; and Belfast sees dawn break at 7.50am.
When do the clocks go back in 2026?
The slide into pitch-black morning commutes is due for a temporary reprieve before the end of the month.
(BST) officially ends in the early hours of Sunday, October 25, 2026.
At 2am, to (GMT).
The change grants us an extra hour of sleep and an immediate morning boost, pushing London’s sunrise back from around 7.40am to 6.41am.
But that morning brightness comes at a price for the evening journey home.
Sunset on October 25 shifts earlier to 4.46pm, meaning the school run and evening rush hour will take place under darker skies for weeks to come.
Full list of London sunrise times for the rest of the year
The following Time and Date figures provide a week-by-week guide for London through the remainder of 2026:
- October 12: Sunrise 7.19am | Sunset 6.13pm
- October 18: Sunrise 7.29am | Sunset 6.00pm
- October 25 (Clocks go back): Sunrise 6.41am | Sunset 4.46pm
- November 1: Sunrise 6.53am | Sunset 4.33pm
- November 8: Sunrise 7.06am | Sunset 4.21pm
- November 15: Sunrise 7.18am | Sunset 4.11pm
- November 22: Sunrise 7.30am | Sunset 4.02pm
- November 29: Sunrise 7.40am | Sunset 3.56pm
- December 6: Sunrise 7.50am | Sunset 3.52pm
- December 13: Sunrise 7.57am | Sunset 3.51pm
- December 20: Sunrise 8.03am | Sunset 3.52pm
- December 27: Sunrise 8.05am | Sunset 3.57pm
- December 31: Sunrise 8.06am | Sunset 4.00pm
When is the shortest day of 2026?
Daylight hours across the country will continue to shrink until the winter solstice, which falls on Monday, December 21.
Astronomically, this marks the official beginning of winter and represents the shortest day and longest night of the calendar year.
In London, there will be fewer than eight hours of daylight between dawn and dusk.
In northern Scotland, places like Aberdeen and Inverness will see fewer than six and a half hours.
But the winter solstice does not feature the latest sunrise of the year.
Due to the discrepancy between solar noon and standard clock time, mornings continue to darken slightly until late December, with London reaching its latest sunrise of 8.06am on New Year’s Eve.
From the beginning of January, the mornings will begin stretching out once again as the countdown to spring gets underway.
